y
Bryan was an ultra-pacifist; like men of one idea, he saw only the fact
of a hideous war, and he was prepared to welcome anything that would end
hostilities. The cessation of bloodshed was to him the great purpose to
be attained: in the mind of Secretary Bryan it was more important that
the war should be stopped than that the Allies should win. To President
Wilson the European disaster appeared to be merely a selfish struggle
for power, in which both sides were almost equally to blame. He never
accepted Page's obvious interpretation that the single cause was
Germany's determination to embark upon a war of world conquest. From the
beginning, therefore, Page saw that he would have great difficulty in
preventing intervention from Washington in the interest of Germany, yet
this was another great service to which he now unhesitatingly directed
his efforts.

The Ambassador was especially apprehensive of these peace moves in the
early days of September, when the victorious German armies were marching
on Paris. In London, as in most parts of the world, the capture of the
French capital was then regarded as inevitable. September 3, 1914, was
one of the darkest days in modern times. The population of Paris was
fleeing southward; the Government had moved its headquarters to
Bordeaux; and the moment seemed to be at hand when the German Emperor
would make his long anticipated entry into the capital of France. It was
under these circumstances that the American Ambassador to Great Britain
sent the following message directly to the President:

_To the President_
American Embassy, London,
Sep. 3, 4 A.M.

Everybody in this city confidently believes that the Germans, if
they capture Paris, will make a proposal for peace, and that the
German Emperor will send you a message declaring that he is
unwilling to shed another drop of blood. Any proposal that the
Kaiser makes will be simply the proposal of a conqueror. His real
purpose will be to preserve the Hohenzollern dynasty and the
imperial bureaucracy. The prevailing English judgment is that, if
Germany be permitted to stop hostilities, the war will have
accomplished nothing. There is a determination here to destroy
utterly the German bureaucracy, and Englishmen are prepared to
sacrifice themselves to any extent in men and money. The
preparations that are being made here are for a long war; as I read
the